Kookaburra2011
MISCELLANY: HMAS WYATT EARP and her RAAF Kingfisher off the Balleny Islands, Antarctica, Feb 1948 - Graeme Andrews/NHSA.
6480. We have covered the unusual background and exploits of the tiny 402 grt polar exploration ship and WWII RAN stores and examination vessel HMAS WYATT EARP a number of times. To recap briefly for this image, in early 1948 the little vessel, built in Norway in 1919, made two voyages south for the Australia Antarctic research organisation ANARE, but was plagued by gales, mechanical breakdowns, a badly leaking hull and pack ice. Her first foray had to be abandoned, and on the second attempt she was prevented from carrying out her objective of surveying the Antarctic coast of King George Land by severe ice, and so turned east to survey the adjacent Balleny Islands, which would be claimed by New Zealand.
WYATT EARP carried an RAAF Vought Kingfisher OS2U seaplane for her work, but it was under-powered and proved to be of limited use due to the atrocious weather, which eventually reaching hurricane force in February, when she had to stand to and ride it out. We had a photo of the Kingfisher being lowered from the ship at Entry NO. 5638 [note its very small propellor]:
[ www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/7002625959/
Our fullest account of WYATT EARP's her career - of course just a brief outline - was under the preceding Entry, NO. 5637.
After leaving the Balleny group, WYATT EARP steamed north to Macquarie Island, where she met up with the large Landing Ship Tank LST 3501, later HMAS LABUAN, in Buckles Bay, supplying the estabishment of an Australian Antarctic base there.
After staying with the 3065 ton LST for four days the little ship returned to Melbourne, where she was paid off in June that year [1948]. She was too small and had become too slow, and old for further such voyages. In the appalling weather, bad feeling had also developed between the ships officers and crew on one hand, concerned with safety, and the scientists on the other, who felt that their research work was not being treated seriously.
In some cases these the breakdowns in relations would sour aspects of Australia's Antarctic research mission for decades.
You can read about it, in notes to the production of a film, 'Antarctica 1948.'
aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/antarctica-1948/notes/
The former HMAS WYATT EARP and HMAS WONGALA [her WWII Navy name] was sold into private ownership for the coastal trade, and re-named NATONE. She was driven ashore by storms and wrecked in Queensland's Rainbow Bay in Jan., 1959, becoming a total loss.
ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM COMMENTS DISCUSSION BELOW.
tthere is an excellent potted history of WYATT EARP in the ' Australian Screen' online film heritage website under the last link in the entry here, written by the site's curator Paul Byrnes.
Byrnes writes: The ship was itself historic, having made four journeys to Antarctica under the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, in 1933–34, 1934–35, 1935–36, and 1938–39. Ellsworth had named the ship Wyatt Earp after his distant relative, the famous Dodge City marshal. That appears to have been the extent of his affection for the vessel, which was built in Norway in 1919 to fish for herring.
Phillip Law writes in his book The Antarctic Voyage of HMAS Wyatt EARP [1995, Allen and Unwin, ISBN 1 86373 803 7] that Ellsworth became increasingly exasperated by the excessive rolling of the ship. At the end of the 1939 voyage, he gave the ship to Sir Hubert Wilkins, the Australian polar explorer, photographer and aviator, who had served as his pilot and observer. Wilkins sold the boat to the Australian Government for £4400 and she was renamed HMAS WONGALA. During the war, she carried stores to Darwin, patrolled in the South Australian gulf and ended up as a training ship for Boy Scouts, moored in the Torrens River. .." [end of extract]
The ship's first RAN name WONGALA meant 'Boomerang' in an Aboriginal dialect. The RAN restored her name WYATT EARP for obvious historical Antarctic connection reasons in 1947 when she was assigned to the Australian ANARE Antarctic expeditions
Photo: possibly taken by Laurie Le Guay the official photographer on WYATT EARP'S voyage, although expedition member David Eastman and chief scientist Phillip Law were also taking photographs. It comes to us from Graeme Andrews and the Naval Historical Society of Australia, with their permission.
MISCELLANY: HMAS WYATT EARP and her RAAF Kingfisher off the Balleny Islands, Antarctica, Feb 1948 - Graeme Andrews/NHSA.
6480. We have covered the unusual background and exploits of the tiny 402 grt polar exploration ship and WWII RAN stores and examination vessel HMAS WYATT EARP a number of times. To recap briefly for this image, in early 1948 the little vessel, built in Norway in 1919, made two voyages south for the Australia Antarctic research organisation ANARE, but was plagued by gales, mechanical breakdowns, a badly leaking hull and pack ice. Her first foray had to be abandoned, and on the second attempt she was prevented from carrying out her objective of surveying the Antarctic coast of King George Land by severe ice, and so turned east to survey the adjacent Balleny Islands, which would be claimed by New Zealand.
WYATT EARP carried an RAAF Vought Kingfisher OS2U seaplane for her work, but it was under-powered and proved to be of limited use due to the atrocious weather, which eventually reaching hurricane force in February, when she had to stand to and ride it out. We had a photo of the Kingfisher being lowered from the ship at Entry NO. 5638 [note its very small propellor]:
[ www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/7002625959/
Our fullest account of WYATT EARP's her career - of course just a brief outline - was under the preceding Entry, NO. 5637.
After leaving the Balleny group, WYATT EARP steamed north to Macquarie Island, where she met up with the large Landing Ship Tank LST 3501, later HMAS LABUAN, in Buckles Bay, supplying the estabishment of an Australian Antarctic base there.
After staying with the 3065 ton LST for four days the little ship returned to Melbourne, where she was paid off in June that year [1948]. She was too small and had become too slow, and old for further such voyages. In the appalling weather, bad feeling had also developed between the ships officers and crew on one hand, concerned with safety, and the scientists on the other, who felt that their research work was not being treated seriously.
In some cases these the breakdowns in relations would sour aspects of Australia's Antarctic research mission for decades.
You can read about it, in notes to the production of a film, 'Antarctica 1948.'
aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/antarctica-1948/notes/
The former HMAS WYATT EARP and HMAS WONGALA [her WWII Navy name] was sold into private ownership for the coastal trade, and re-named NATONE. She was driven ashore by storms and wrecked in Queensland's Rainbow Bay in Jan., 1959, becoming a total loss.
ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM COMMENTS DISCUSSION BELOW.
tthere is an excellent potted history of WYATT EARP in the ' Australian Screen' online film heritage website under the last link in the entry here, written by the site's curator Paul Byrnes.
Byrnes writes: The ship was itself historic, having made four journeys to Antarctica under the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, in 1933–34, 1934–35, 1935–36, and 1938–39. Ellsworth had named the ship Wyatt Earp after his distant relative, the famous Dodge City marshal. That appears to have been the extent of his affection for the vessel, which was built in Norway in 1919 to fish for herring.
Phillip Law writes in his book The Antarctic Voyage of HMAS Wyatt EARP [1995, Allen and Unwin, ISBN 1 86373 803 7] that Ellsworth became increasingly exasperated by the excessive rolling of the ship. At the end of the 1939 voyage, he gave the ship to Sir Hubert Wilkins, the Australian polar explorer, photographer and aviator, who had served as his pilot and observer. Wilkins sold the boat to the Australian Government for £4400 and she was renamed HMAS WONGALA. During the war, she carried stores to Darwin, patrolled in the South Australian gulf and ended up as a training ship for Boy Scouts, moored in the Torrens River. .." [end of extract]
The ship's first RAN name WONGALA meant 'Boomerang' in an Aboriginal dialect. The RAN restored her name WYATT EARP for obvious historical Antarctic connection reasons in 1947 when she was assigned to the Australian ANARE Antarctic expeditions
Photo: possibly taken by Laurie Le Guay the official photographer on WYATT EARP'S voyage, although expedition member David Eastman and chief scientist Phillip Law were also taking photographs. It comes to us from Graeme Andrews and the Naval Historical Society of Australia, with their permission.